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The story
The Chunichi Dragons are mired in the Central League cellar with a losing record, sitting in fifth place barely ahead of last-place Hiroshima — yet as of the 24th, their home stadium Vantelin Dome boasts a 98.7% attendance rate, tops in the Central League. On 5ch, users debated why the team stays packed even while losing, pointing to the club’s policy of prioritizing local-born players and a fanbase that enjoys watching regardless of wins or losses.
What people said
Chunichi — sitting in fifth place with no game gap over last-place Hiroshima — have pulled off a "feat."
Their home stadium's attendance rate (attendance as a share of maximum capacity) hit a jaw-dropping 98.7% as of the 24th, reportedly putting them at the very top of the Central League.
Re: #10
Feel that.
Seriously, whenever a Chunichi thread pops up I click it even though I'm not even a fan
Chunichi Dragons fan: "I love Chunidora because they're weak! I watch every single day!"
Same thing's happening at other sports too — they're getting sold out from the spillover cash.
Chunichi is seriously an anomaly.
Actually, back in the Ochiai era they were strong but not popular 🥺
That's because they're not playing the boring brand of baseball they did in the Ochiai era
As a spectacle/business, they're basically unbeatable
Rakuten should take a page from that.
Matayoshi's retirement was announced too, huh
Really makes you feel the era changing
What I've heard is that corporate season seats sell like crazy regardless of win/loss record, and that their win rate happens to sit right around the percentage that gives you that gambling-style dopamine hit.
It's not like Nagoya has no other entertainment options, though.
Probably because they've built up a huge base of fans like me who are satisfied just watching a Chunichi game, win or lose.
Credit to the front office's effort.
The dome's actually in Yada, not Daikō
Is it just because they have a dome?
It's simply that the club's appeal is on a completely different level.
Chunichi has plenty of players you actually want to root for.
Oh it absolutely did
It's Fever Chunidoragoul! (a pun mashing "Chunidora" with "Tokyo Ghoul")
You kidding me? There's also pachinko, horse racing, plenty of other stuff
Ochiai doesn't have as much to do with it as people say.
"Salaries suffer because they're in last place" is like a 20th-century Hanshin kind of take.
Sure, if they could actually win the championship.
But if you load up on reinforcements and still end up finishing an awkward 4th, it doesn't pay off and the cost-effectiveness is terrible.
So I think Chunichi's current situation is actually the best case for them.
Background and Key Points
Chunichi’s Vantelin Dome Nagoya (formerly Nagoya Dome) seats a comparatively modest ~36,000, and the Dragons are the last of Japan’s old newspaper-owned franchises — controlled by the Chunichi Shimbun rather than a tech or retail conglomerate like Rakuten (Golden Eagles) or DeNA. That ownership model matters for the thread’s “brainwashing” jokes about CBC, Tokai TV, and Nagoya TV/Me~Tele: those stations are corporate siblings or close partners of the paper, and Nagoya is unusual among Japan’s big markets in having local broadcasters this invested in one team’s daily coverage. The Central League itself plays without a DH, and Chunichi’s last real success came under manager Ochiai Tochihiko (2004–2011), whose title-winning teams were also, notoriously, dull to watch.
The thread doesn’t converge on one cause — posters trade several competing explanations without settling: loyal fans who enjoy Chunichi precisely because they’re bad and unpretentious now (unlike the Ochiai era), corporate season-ticket blocks that sell regardless of standings, weak-yen-driven discretionary spending by nearby Toyota-linked wealth, and a front-office view (post #114/#120) that mid-table mediocrity is actually the financially optimal outcome versus overspending for an awkward fourth place.
What the thread never addresses is that NPB “attendance” figures, including this 98.7%, are announced tickets-distributed numbers, not verified turnstile counts — a longstanding league-wide practice, not something unique to Chunichi. Readers unfamiliar with NPB may assume these are audited head counts the way MLB or Premier League attendance is.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “[Good News] Chunichi Dragons Lead Central League with 98.7% Attendance Rate.”
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